Legal action over lack of plan for threatened species

Wed 22 May 2013, 8:21 AM AEST

An environment group in Gippsland has launched legal action against the Department of Environment and Primary Industries.

Environment East Gippsland alleges the department has breached the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act by not preparing conservation plans for four threatened species; the glossy black cockatoo, the large brown tree frog, the long-nosed potoroo and the eastern she-oak skink.

Felicity Millner of the Environment Defenders Office says the conservation plans, called action statements, are meant to be prepared as soon as possible when a species is put on the threatened list.

"In some of the species that we've selected they've all been listed for ten years or more and none of them have action statements," she said.

A government spokesman says some of the listings go back to 1995, pre-dating the current government.

He says there is funding in this year's budget to support threatened species.